We talk with journalists Sterling Fluharty and Andy Lyman about the shady dealmaking going on at the end of the session.

March 21, 2013, 11:00 am

By Joey Peters

This year's legislative session ended on a bizarre and controversial note as the Legislature rammed through a giant tax package at the last minute with no scrutiny, no written fiscal impact analysis and a few upset lawmakers who were cut off from debate.

Hosts Matthew Reichbach and Joey Peters discuss how the shady deal went down with independent journalists Sterling Fluharty and Andy Lyman. We also get reaction from two key lawmakers—state Reps. Bill McCamley, D-Doña Ana and Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe—who were on the floor at the time the tax package went down.

It all started last week, when Gov. Susana Martinez vetoed the House Democrats' state budget, which meant a special session was looming. But instead of deciding to come back in a month for a special session to decide the budget, the House and Senate Democratic leadership put together a giant package of corporate tax cuts—the kind Martinez was advocating for—and rammed it through during the last hour of the general session this past weekend.

By doing so, at the behest of Speaker Ken Martinez, D-Grants, the House may have broken its own rules.

As for the tax package, it will lower the state's corporate income tax from 7.6 percent to 5.9 percent over five years. So far, it arguably represents Martinez' biggest accomplish yet in her term as governor.